Up To No Good
by miraleeann
Summary: A one shot that could go along with TWICHB or stand on it's own.


**Author's Note: Another short story that could go along with TWICHB or could stand on it's own, whichever you prefer is fine.**

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><p>The last week of summer was always the longest in the Potter household and this year was no exception. Harry and Ginny, though they loved their children dearly, often looked forward to the end of summer. Of course, after a week of her boys away at school, Ginny would be beside herself missing them and although Harry never showed it quite as much as his wife, he tended to miss them just as much. Still, getting through the last week of summer was never an easy task.<p>

Lily, who still had a year left before she went off to Hogwarts herself, was quite moody at the idea that she was going to be stuck at home for another long winter with just her parents. Several times in the past few days she had snapped at one of her brothers causing them to snap back at her and leading to one of their parents having to break the whole thing up. Albus' and James' attitudes were the exact opposite of their sister's. The boys were so ecstatic to be returning to Hogwarts in just a few days time that they were wired practically around the clock. Ginny couldn't decide what was worse, breaking up fights between the two of them or dealing with the mischief they caused when they were allied together as one.

It was after a particularly difficult day that involved several outbursts from Lily along with the boys attempting a spell to make the family cat fly which resulted in the cat sicking up all over the kitchen that Harry sent Ginny to visit her parents for the day, giving her a break from her children.

She had been gone for just over an hour when Harry abandoned his work in his study and went to check on his children, finding Lily lying on her bed reading a book and the boys playing a quiet game of chess in the living room. He smiled to himself as he returned to his study. Picking up the parchment he had disregarded only moments earlier, he couldn't help as his smile grew. Nor could he help himself from beaming proudly at the fact that the children were behaving so well for him when they had been menaces for his wife the day before.

The thought had hardly drifted from Harry's mind when he heard Albus' voice ring out through the house, "GIVE THEM BACK!"

Harry froze for a moment, listening intently. Unlike Ginny, who often jumped up immediately upon hearing anything happen with or between the children, Harry liked to give them a chance to work it out on their own, only jumping in when absolutely necessary.

"JAMES! NOW!" The voice rang out again and Harry noted that his son sounded on the verge of tears.

Harry let the parchment fall from his hand once more as he headed towards the door, he would have liked to have given the boys a few more minutes to figure this out on their own, but it wasn't often that Albus cried and Harry couldn't imagine what James was doing to cause his brother such distress.

"Maybe I'll turn them into an owl, it'd make a better pet than your stupid bloody ferr-"

"James Sirius!" Harry's stern voice cut off his son.

He had walked in the room to find James holding his brother's glasses high above his head as Albus jumped up trying to reach for them to no avail.

James quickly whipped around to see his dad standing a few feet behind him, but instead of immediately apologizing like Harry expected him to, he instead blurted out an excuse.

"He cheated!" James' motioned towards the chess board.

"I didn't!" Albus yelled trying once more to reach for his glasses.

Harry remained silent and stuck an expectant hand out.

Sighing in defeat, James handed over the glasses.

"No fair," the boy complained as his father handed the glasses back to Albus. "He cheated! And I was just messing around."

"And it's about to become even more unjust," Harry retorted. "Outside now, go degnome the garden."

"But Dad…"

"Your mother spoke to you yesterday about using magic outside of Hogwarts and now I find you not even twenty four hours later about to do so again?"

"But I wasn't really going to! I just…"

"Now please, James," Harry said in a tired voice. As he did so his thoughts instantly went to his godfather who had spoken the same words so often when Harry was growing up. Harry often thought of his godfather when dealing with his own children; however, he did feel that his godfather had had it much easier considering Harry dealt with three children whereas Sirius had dealt with only one. At these words, James gave his father one last pleading look before he turned and walked out the door, sulking all the way.

Once Harry heard the screen door slam, indicating that James was outside, Harry turned to his younger son.

He was about to ask Albus what had happened, but before he could even open his mouth his youngest son beat him to it, as he usually did.

"I didn't cheat, Dad! He always thinks I do just because I'm better than him," Albus blurted out. "He thinks that because he's older he has to be better but he isn't and that's not my fault."

Harry nodded, swallowing a chuckle down before speaking once more. "And then what happened?"

"He took my glasses off my face and wouldn't give them back and then you came in."

"That's everything that happened?" Harry asked. One thing he could say about all three of his children was that they never lied. From a young age Harry had promised them the same consequences that Sirius had promised him, though Sirius now thought they were barbaric. Despite the fact that Harry had threatened to follow through with the consequence several times, he felt fortunate that he had never actually had to follow through.

Albus nodded quickly before he replaced his glasses on his face. "I promise, Dad."

Harry was silent for a moment before he spoke once more, his voice much gentler this time around. "Alright…go find something to do quietly please."

The boy nodded before turning and dashing up the stairs, clearly thrilled that he wasn't in any kind of trouble.

Harry was about to go back to his study when on second thought he decided to check on James before burying himself in his work once more. He sighed softly to himself as he headed towards the backdoor, regretting his thoughts only moments earlier regarding how much better his children behaved for him.

The sun blinded him for a moment as he walked out into the yard and when his eyesight came back he found himself closing his eyes on his own accord, stunned by what he saw before him. There was his son, his wand in hand using Petrificus Totalus to body bind the gnomes.

"James Sirius!" Harry yelled out for the second time that afternoon.

Upon hearing his name, James quickly turned around, and to Harry's reassurance his son at least had the decency to look guilty.

"I…I was…I was just…"

"Do you need a reminder of the penalty for lying in this family?"

"I was using magic on the gnomes," James admitted in a soft voice. "I just thought it would be quicker."

"I'm sure it would be aside from one small detail."

"I'm not allowed to do magic away from Hogwarts," James said in a voice just hardly above a whisper.

"What was that? I can't hear you, but perhaps you were admitting to the fact that you not only broke a house rule but a law as well," Harry spoke in a stern voice.

"It's not really a law," James argued. "There's accidental magic and…"

"Are you insinuating that this was accidental magic?" Harry asked with an eyebrow raised.

James opened his mouth to lie but then thought better of it and quickly shook his head, "No, sir."

"To your room."

James opened his mouth to argue but quickly thought better of it and instead rushed past his father and up to his room, taking the steps two at a time.

He had pushed the door shut behind him and was just about to throw himself onto his bed and pretend to be asleep, a tactic he always used when he was about to be punished, when his father entered the room behind him taking away his chance to do so.

"Dad, I…"

Harry held up his hand silencing his son. "Where's your permission slip?"

James gave his dad a curious look but made no attempt to move.

"Now, please."

Slowly James walked towards his desk and picked the slip up off his pile of school books for the upcoming year, handing it over to his dad.

"Dad, don't…"

But James' voice quickly diminished when Harry pulled out his wand and waved it once across the parchment before handing it back to his son.

James' eyes drifted down at the paper, his face falling as they did.

"Daaad," he whined before he was able to stop himself. In the past month or so, James had put in a great effort to stop his tendency to whine when faced with something he didn't care for. It had actually been a few weeks before one had escaped his lips at all but the parchment that was in front of his face was enough to cause him to forget his promise to himself all together.

"I don't want to hear it," Harry replied in a voice so stern that he startled himself. "Your mother spoke to you yesterday about using magic and I reminded you of that this morning only minutes before you disobeyed me, did I not?"

"Yeah, but you can't just take your name off of this!" James argued as he waved the parchment.

"I can and I did," Harry replied. "If you can't even obey your mother and me with a rule as simple as not performing magic, how can we trust you to go to Hogsmeade with your classmates?"

"That's not fair! Every third year gets to go!"

"Actually that isn't true," Harry pointed out in a calm voice. "I didn't get to go to Hogsmeade when I was a third year and I survived."

"You probably hated Uncle Sirius for it," James huffed.

"Maybe for a day," Harry admitted. "But I got past it." He paused for a moment as he observed his son, looking absolutely miserable with the world. "You did this to yourself, James. You had more than enough warnings to behave and you didn't listen, so this is the repercussion and you don't have anyone to blame but yourself."

"But I'll behave now," James attempted to promise.

"I'm sure you will," Harry smiled. "But I'm still not re-signing it. Now I'm going to go check on your sister and I'd suggest you keep yourself out of trouble."

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><p>It was late when Ginny arrived home; Harry had just finished tucking Lily into bed and the boys were in their own rooms, reading before they too were ready to go to sleep.<p>

The moment Ginny saw Harry's face she knew something had happened but she never for a moment believed it was as serious as it was.

"You really un-signed his permission slip?" Ginny couldn't help the amazement that crept into her voice. It wasn't like her husband to get angry enough with the children to discipline them, that was usually her job and he definitely rarely punished them so harshly.

"I had to do something, Gin; I couldn't just let him get away with it."

"No, I know that," she agreed in a soft voice. "But to take away Hogsmeade? You hated Sirius when he did that."

"For like a day," Harry retorted.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Perhaps you forget that I was there and I seem to remember you being angry for longer than just a day."

"So you think I should re-sign it?" Harry asked in a surprised voice.

"Absolutely not," Ginny shook her head. "That wouldn't teach him anything except that he'll eventually get his way. No…I think you did the right thing."

"That doesn't sound very convincing."

"I'll speak to him," Ginny replied as she stood up, giving Harry a light kiss on the cheek. "Make sure he isn't plotting his revenge."

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><p>Ginny knocked softly on her eldest son's door, waiting for his reply before softly pushing the door open.<p>

"Hey, Mum," James greeted her in a quiet voice.

He was sitting up in his bed, his back resting on his headboard, his knees pulled up to his chest, a Quidditch magazine resting on them.

"I heard we got into a bit of mischief today," she spoke as she sat on the edge of his bed.

"It wasn't even that big of a deal and dad totally flipped out and un-signed my permission slip," James complained in a voice dangerously close to a whine.

"Not a big deal?" Ginny gave her son a look. "Doing underage magic after two separate warnings not to? I'm pretty sure you know better than that."

James shrugged softly, his eyes downcast. "Maybe it was a bit of a big deal but Dad is still being completely unfair. He went mental, Mum….he really did!"

Ginny swallowed a laugh, taking a moment to compose herself before she spoke once more. "Did you apologize to your dad for misbehaving?"

"No, ma'am," James admitted softly.

"When he comes up to say goodnight you're going to apologize to him and accept his punishment."

James continued to look down at his magazine, making no move to agree or even acknowledge that he heard her.

"Do you understand me, young man?" Ginny asked, her voice becoming stern for just a moment.

James quickly nodded. "Yes, I understand."

Ginny nodded as she stood up and leaned over and placed a kiss on her son's forehead.

"I'll make you a deal," she spoke softly. "If you can behave yourself until you head back to school, perhaps I'll pack a certain map in your trunk."

James looked up at his mother, amazed by her comment but a bit confused as to why she would offer such a thing.

"There's more than one way out of that castle," Ginny smiled softly.

A smile immediately overtook James' face as he opened his mouth to reply. Ginny, however, beat him to it.

"Keep that between you and me though, Love, no need for your father to ever know."

James nodded quickly. "I will, I promise! Night, Mum, love you."

"Good night darling and don't forget to behave."


End file.
